Reportage to Documentary wedding photography

The word reportage has become something of a buzz word amongst wedding photographers over the last few years. It’s associated with the more modern, contemporary approach to wedding photography and because of its appeal it’s a word that has been adopted by virtually all wedding photographers regardless of their style, skills or experience. Amongst the genuine photojournalistic wedding photographers this is increasingly becoming a concern and hence why many of us are now dropping the usage of the word from our marketing and replacing it with the word documentary.

What’s the difference you may ask? Well these are simply words and the difference is in how various photographers apply the words to themselves. With most couples wanting to buy into reportage photography even the old fashioned traditional photographers will now shoot a few candid shots of guests laughing at the drinks reception and refer to it as reportage. Therefore you can see how wildly ambiguous and overused the word has become.

So what exactly is documentary wedding photography? Basically, it is story telling where we will tell the real story of your day in images. This of course requires its own set of skills in addition to the necessary technical and photographic proficiency required of all photographers. Crucial timing, anticipation and a constant vigilance have to be coupled with the ability to work quickly and quietly whilst continually adapting to the ever changing lighting and ambience. Away from the old fashioned, traditional form of wedding photography, documentary photography captures the real, genuine magic of the day. The emotions, the fun, the tears and the laughter to produce a unique timeless pictorial record of emotive narrative.

One of the advantages with documentary photography is that the bulk of the days images are completely natural. Which is exactly as they should be and why the true essence of the day is captured. So as I photograph a wedding day I do not boss people around or spend the day shouting orders or interrupting the proceedings in order to stage events and set shots up. In fact, one of the most frequent compliments I receive is not just how great the photographs are but also how unobtrusive I was on the day. This really does epitomise documentary photography which simply allows the day to unfold naturally with very little staging or direction. Of course, it doesn’t mean brandishing the camera about like a machine gun. For many periods of the day I may find myself looking through the camera lens for several minutes without firing the shutter if nothing is happening. But when it is time to press the shutter you need to know whether to be in close or pull back, zoom in or shoot wide, limit the depth of field or keep everything in tight focus. So its all about quality not quantity. I hope the images I’ve used help to illustrate this. I picked up a "Silver" award in the Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers monthly competition in the wedding photojournalism category last month (fingers crossed that it will get upgraded to a Gold for the wedding photographer of year competition) for the first photograph you see here so at least that one should be a reasonable example, lol.

Although I am happy to photograph the day with no formals whatsoever if that is the request, I do feel that some time should be allocated to group shots as this is an important part of the day not just for the couple but all their families too. However, unlike traditional wedding photography I will not spend two or three hours on this. Generally, twenty minutes is sufficient which allows the newly weds to spend the majority of their time with their family and guests without worrying about the photography taking over the day.

Even my session with the bride and groom will be natural and relaxed in keeping with the overall style of the photography. Amid the hustle and bustle of such an energy packed day it’s nice for the newly weds to get a few minutes of alone time, and it is this that I will capitalise on in order to create a mix of fun, romantic and fashionable images. So if their venue has beautiful gardens then we’ll go for a stroll around them. If they are married in a castle we’ll seek out the quiet nooks and cranny’s. Every venue will have its own unique characteristics that can be utilised to great effect. I’ll encourage and direct the couple to do normal and natural things within each setting. I never ask anyone to do anything that is not natural or does not fit the location or occasion. So, if they want to go jumping around in a field or have all the ladies kicking their legs in the air I’ll happily photograph it, but you wont get me asking for it! lol.

If this is the style of wedding photography you are looking for then how to do you tell a genuine photojournalistic wedding photographer from some one bandying the reportage word? It’s important to see complete and recent weddings. The last couple who booked me for their wedding photography were looking for a wedding photographer in Edinburgh at a wedding show. There were around half a dozen photographers at the show but the couple had noted that the majority of their display albums were primarily made up of formal groups. In fact, they said that on one stand a couple of albums they browsed through contained nothing but group photographs. So, remember the key to look for is storytelling. That is real reportage wedding photography. Or documentary as its now called! lol.